As the announcers start to present France’s team in every match of the women’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the first number called is 27. With number twenty-seven, vingt-sept, Estelle Nze Minko. Immediately, a big smile breaks through the huge cheers in the South Paris Arena 6, as the team captain gets on the court.

The expectations for France are huge in every sport. As the hosts, they aim to showcase their country, their passion, their joie de vivre, as the song replayed over and over again in the arena, says. And, of course, at the end, the big objective, is to win as many medals as possible.

After the first four days of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, France have won 18 medals, the second largest number, and are fourth in the medal standings, with five gold medals, nine silver medals and four bronze medals. And, of course, they plan to add to that tally. But with the expectations, there comes pressure.

The pressure is also big on the France women’s senior national handball team, the reigning Olympic champions at Tokyo 2020. Anything but a final would be considered a step back. But, somehow, this team has found the way to smile under a lot of pressure.

“I don't know because the Olympics are also like a party and this is also something that we talk a lot about between each other in the team, you know. We talk about also enjoying the moment and enjoying like just the Olympic Games. Pressure is one thing, but like we still have to remember how lucky we are to be here and of course also the atmosphere helps,” says Nze Minko.

That coping mechanism – if it can be properly called like that – lifted France to their best-ever start in the history of the Olympic Games. The team worked like a charm and delivered some fantastic performances, with wins against Hungary (31:28), the Netherlands (32:28) and Brazil (26:20).

That proved that France can win in different ways. While the match against Brazil was a vintage France performance, with a strong defence, which conceded few goals, the other two were something far removed from what France delivered in the past years, when they secured the gold medal at the EHF EURO 2018, or the silver medal at the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship.

And, according to Nze Minko, it was all part of the plan. Because France always had a good defence, but their attack could be slow and predictable at times, something which the best opponents exploited to their advantage.

“After the European Championship in 2022, we worked a lot on our attack, because we figured out that we were really good in defence, but it wasn't enough anymore. So we really had to work on our attack and we spent one year working on an offensive project. And here it is. It helps a lot and I think we improved in attack and it can allow us to win matches even if sometimes we do not always have the perfect level in defense, because we can also win matches in different ways,” says the France captain.

With three wins in three matches and Angola and Spain following, France have already secured a quarter-finals berth – the first team to do so at Paris 2024 – and are primed to win their group, basically needing one more win from their next two matches to mathematically clinch the first place.

What does motivate the European powerhouse, the reigning world champions to go at it every time with a smile upon their face?

“Whether you are 32 years old like me or if you are only 20, you will never have the Olympic Games at home twice in your career. So for us, it's really important and I'm just happy that we started in a way that we didn't get beaten by the pressure. We were not overwhelmed, but we got more like motivation out of it and yeah we're just giving it all and it's working well so far,” adds Nze Minko.

However, the All-Star left back at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship knows that behind the smile and the wins, the amount of work put in by her and her teammates is huge. The expectations are big, the pressure is big, therefore over the last six weeks, France trained with only one objective in mind: the gold medal.

“It's a lot of work, it's a lot of dedication, of course, physically, mentally, individually, collectively. There have been a lot of meetings, a lot of trying to be better,  a lot of talking with the coaches, with the players. It is a lot of things all together, and, of course, like every single team, we would like to win.  I guess because it's still Olympics and everyone wants to win, but we are dealing with a different kind of pressure slash excitement since it's at home,” concludes Nze Minko.